Editorial: Focus on fair elections

Legend has it that the emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned in 64 A.D.

Fast forward 1,949 years and much the same could be said of the Shelby County Election Commission. Nero's fiddle has been replaced with partisan and personal acrimony. In place of a burning Rome, the public has an elections system buffeted by snafus and questions about whether the five-member commission and its top administrators can run a clean election.

Partisan bickering is going to happen in public bodies whose members are selected based on politics. The acrimony that has been displayed on the Election Commission is cause for concern, though, because its members' energy should be focused on making sure the county's next big election, scheduled for May 2014, runs smoothly.

There is no more important job than making sure that one of this nation's most precious rights is protected from administrative mistakes and obstacles that can dilute that right.

Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly have seen fit to make it harder for some citizens to cast a ballot by passing a law requiring voters to have a government-issued photo identification card. The law's supporters say the law is needed to prevent people from voting fraudulently, although there has been no strong evidence that voter fraud is a widespread problem. Opponents say the law is an attempt to suppress the vote of groups that are more likely to vote for Democratic candidates.

Problems have also resulted in Shelby County from some voters' names being wrongly purged from voter rolls.

The fallout from the voter ID law, wrongful purging of voters and other issues was seen in last November's general election. Nearly four out of five of the 7,097 paper provisional ballots cast across the state by voters who experienced problems at the polls were tossed out.

Those numbers are admittedly minuscule when compared with the 2.4 million votes cast Nov. 6. Still, 5,474 citizens were denied a vote that counted. And nearly half the provisional ballots issued in 2012 were in Shelby County, a Democratic Party stronghold.

We are not accusing the GOP-led county Election Commission of engaging in any underhanded activity, but when problems occur it feeds the perception in some circles that partisan concerns trump whether the commission and its staff can run a fair election.

Voters receiving incorrect ballots and voters being incorrectly turned away by poll workers because it appeared that they had already voted are just some of the irregularities that have plagued the commission, which is composed of three Republicans and two Democrats.

The commission and its staff should be taking steps to make sure that such snafus don't happen again. It seems they are moving in that direction. Commissioners have recommended purchasing technology that could greatly reduce lines during early voting, while at the same time upgrading its old voter registration software.

The commission also needs to make sure that its staff is up to the job. Administrator of Elections Richard Holden was suspended for three days without pay and put on six months probation last fall because of problems with the voting process.

At a meeting last week, some commission members seemed more interested in sniping at their colleagues over approval of the minutes of an earlier meeting. That is not what voters want to hear from the commissioners. They want to hear that the commission is taking steps to ensure that elections are fair and their votes will count.